Not a chance. Why is it these stories about people getting great mpg in a Prius are always “my XXX’s XXXX did this and got this”? I own a Prius and I live in a flat state, absolutely no hills whatsoever. The only way anyone is getting over 42 mpg in a Prius is if they live in the hills and learn to properly coast in neutral. I’ve owned mine for 3 years, drive 21 miles one-way to work every workday, 18 of those miles on a turnpike with no stops and the best I’ve ever achieved was 42 mpg about the 5th or 6th tank in. Since then the mpg has gone down to mid-30′s. In stop-and-go traffic it will even drop down to the mid to high 20′s (along the PCH from Laguna Beach to Malibu and back it consumed an entire tank of gas, and that’s only 160 miles round-trip). Don’t believe the hype people. Don’t let Toyota fool you! It’s a sweet car, and I enjoy it thoroughly, it’s worth every penny, it just doesn’t get the mpg Toyota and all of the liberal environmentalists claim.

Seriously, I think it looks great! I don’t understand why everyone thinks it is an ugly car, I actually really enjoy the way it looks.

Ok, I did some research and ran some numbers…. the Prius is classified by the EPA as a mid-size car… the Corolla is classified as a compact, so those can’t really be compared. The non-hybrid Toyota make that is comparable and in the same EPA classification is the Camry.

The MSRP for the 2008 standard Prius is $22,220. It’s rated 48 city and 45 highway (though my girlfriends coworker in real world just got an average 52 highway roundtrip between Boston MA and Montreal Canada with her Prius and 3 adult women w/lots of luggage to boot).

The MSRP for the 2008 base Camry with automatic 5-speed transmission (since the Prius is auto) is $20,340 and is rated 21 city, 31 highway.

That’s a price difference of $1,880. With the assumption of 15,000 miles driven/year (GM assumes this w/the Volt as an average)

…. if you drive all city driving you will save 401.79 gallons/year. At $3.50 gas payback is 1.33 years, at $4 gas it’s 1.17 years, and at $5 gas (very possible once worldwide economy turns around) only 0.94 of a year.

…. if you drive all highway driving the fuel savings is 150.53 gallons/year. Payback period at $3.50 gas is 3.5 years, at $4 gas it’s 3.12 years, and at $5 would be 2.5 years.

Most folks are probably somewhere in between the two for city vs. highway, and I don’t know what the combined cycle EPA rating is for either car.

I won’t give all the numbers, but I did run it against the Corolla as well, even though it’s a significantly smaller car. At a $6,295 price difference…. all City miles drivers would take 6 years at $4 gas, all Highway miles drivers would take 16.5 years. But if I was interested in a car the size of the Prius… I wouldn’t also be looking at the Corolla.